Owner: Organic Gardening Success URL:http://organicsuccess.blogspot.com Join Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2006 18:20:54 -0500 Rating:1 Site Description: The organic garden is beautiful, naturally. My gardening success comes from having faith in the power of the Earth and working with Nature as Nature intended. Work with me and I will show you the power of the Earth in your garden. Site statistics:Click here
The Many Uses of Garlic 2007-10-18 16:26:00 From the earliest times garlic has been used as a food. Garlic
has been used as both food and medicine in many cultures for thousands of years, dating as far back as the time that the Egyptian pyramids were built. Here you can see that garlic can be used ornamentally as wellThe leaves, stems(scape) and flowers(bulbils) on the head(spathe) are also edible and most often consumed while immature and still tender.You can grow your own garlic and now is the time to get started. Garlic can be grown in spring as well, but to get the biggest and best bulbs the plant needs the winter time to set its' root system and begin to set its' bulb as well.Plant from October 1st through November 1st or anytime right after the first killing frost.Leave the outer skin on the bulbs and do not separate cloves fr
Fall Is Perfect Time For Planting and Building Your Soil 2007-10-02 00:22:00 Now that the gardening season has run its course, most gardeners are kicking back and thinking the end of summer means the end of the garden. But, if you have decided that you want to make a go of gardening organically you must know that fall is not the time to get lazy.Fall is the best time for planting your trees, shrubs and perennials with the long winter months providing the down time needed for building a healthy root system. Plus, fall is the most important time to be working on improving your soil.If you are serious about going organic then you have to get the nutrients into the soil that the chemicals would normally provide and add the organic matter that sets the stage for healthy root growth.Fall's chore list can be long, but the benefits go way beyond much of what you do during Read more:Perfect
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Take Action or "Raw" or "Organic Almonds Will Be No More 2007-08-23 16:59:00 I have been reading this in the organic news alerts I recieve. Unless we, the people this legislation will effect, take action now politics will win!! This is a post I read on a compost tea forum I belong to. Use the link provided to let the USDA know how you feel."Under pressure from industrial agriculture lobbyists, the USDA has quietly approved a new regulation that will effectively end distribution of raw almonds, while putting many smaller almond farmers out of business. The regulation is scheduled to go into effect on September 1st, unless thousands of consumers take action now. The rule requires pasteurization of almonds, including organic, yet allows those same almonds to continue to be labeled as "raw". Nutritionists point out that raw, organic almonds are far superior, in terms Read more:Action
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AACT - Actively Aerated Compost Tea 2007-07-11 14:29:00 The picture shows the difference between having AACT sprayed on and not.If you've never heard of it then it's time to start checking it out.Here's a great testimonial I found on a Yahoo forum:"I came in from applying ACT to a wheat crop just before dark. My wife was out mowing the lawns. When she finishes up she walks over to where I was rinsing out the sprayer and asks "Why does my lawn look so green and healthy? Response "ACT, of course."We haven't done anything different this year than any other. We have had roughly the same amount of rain as average. I have been applying ACT to the lawn about every 10 days or so since the first part of May.It seems to have Read more:Compost
Organic Control of Ants 2007-06-06 08:52:00 I have Red Fire Ants on my little piece of the world. When I mow I leave my mower set at it highest and leave the clippings on the ground to decompose and feed my lawn. The ants are very busy gathering the lawn clippings that have turned brown and building mounds for their nest. Many of these mounds are quite large. One has been up to three feet in diameter and probably at least a foot high. This is a hugh colony of ants. It is out at the corner of my property where I barely notice it except when I hit it with my mower. This picture of an ant colony is at the edge of a perennial bed outside of my front door. The picture was taken in the early morning hours while the ants were all still in the colony. This is a perfect time to take care of this colony.A big pot of boiling water poured on th Read more:Organic
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Scented Garden Its Own Reward for Garden Organic 2007-05-31 18:48:00 The long hot days of summer are ahead of us and after toiling in the sun we deserve the time to enjoy the fruits of our labor.People garden for various reasons:To put food on the table, and in the pantry for winter.For cut flower bouquets to adorn their homes with color.For the scent of the freshly harvested herbs and vegetables or fragrant flowers.The scented garden is one worthy of our hard work.Here is a list of fragrant blooms that wait til evening to reward you for your hard work:Nicotianas (alata and sylvestris, which are both white, are the most fragrant) Brugmansia and datura (scentless in the daytime, they turn it on after dark) Moonflower (a vine that thrives in heat)Trumpet and Oriental lilies (plant as many different varieties as you can justify)Acidanthera (peacock orchids nee Read more:Organic
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The Scoop on Poop 2007-05-16 00:42:00 The Scoop
on PoopBack in the days when what you ate was literally the fruit of your own labor, you knew that if you wanted your soil to produce a bounty of food that you had to first feed your soil.Since on the farm you had a ready-made fertilizer factory it wasn’t hard to do. Between the chicken, cows, pigs, rabbits, sheep, and horses there was plenty of fertilizer to go around.As science discovered chemicals all that began to change. More folks lived in the city and depended on the local grocer for their food. Farms became less of a family thing and more of a business thing and the advent of synthetic fertilizer, touted as better and easier, became the way of growing crops.Today, as organic food is making a come back, manure is being rediscovered as a fertilizer and soil conditioner an
Organic Lawn Lush and Green... 2007-05-05 10:23:00 Sometimes a beautiful lawn can mean not having so much lawn. The less lawn you have the less work taking care of it. As a bonus, a border of mixed perennials and annuals will attract birds and beneficials that will do their part to keep your yard and lawn healthy with out chemicals.Still, in todays world, as our lives have gotten busier, even a small yard demands too much of us and often our yard and lawn requires the help of a professional.Enter Paul Tukey. Paul Tukey is a man on a mission. He wanted to start a landscaping business and after successfully building a million dollar landscaping company he started suffering from nosebleeds and shortness of breath. His doctor told him to stop applying lawn chemicals and the problems ceased. Although Paul had stopped personally applying the che Read more:Organic
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Raised Beds Are Perfect for the Organic Gardener 2007-04-17 20:36:00 There is much to be said for raised beds. For gardener and plant alike a raised bed environment has many benefits.For the gardener you get to do all your gardening from the garden path without bending over. The plants are at eye level so it’s easier to see pest and disease with the hopes of catching either early on before they do serious damage. On this note it is also easier to see the fruit as well at harvest time. Plus it just looks nice.Raised bed designs by IP Woody's Creative Woodworks For the plant there is the added benefit of a loose, custom blended soil and better drainage. Soil compaction is greatly reduced in a raised bed. The soil tends to warm up earlier in the spring and continue to produce latter in the fall. With the work area at a more accessible height weeds are less l Read more:Perfect
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Springtime Calls for Gardening Tools and Chores! 2007-04-02 22:52:00 Early Spring Gardening Tools
and Chores
Spring flowers are beacons of light shining through what's left of the bleak winter landscape.There’s no way around it, even if you did all your chores last fall, the first jobs to be done in the spring are clean up. So get your garden cart out, your rake, pruning shears and gloves and get to picking up all the trash left behind by mindless, rude human beings, and the ravages of Mother Nature.Look for dead and damaged plant material. Be merciless when cutting back a plant that has suffered any kind of damage. It will come back stronger than ever.Make sure any leaves and plant material that are diseased have been cleaned up and discarded properly to avoid recontamination of new growth.Get out your garden fork and cultivator. Cultivate shallowly wher Read more:Springtime
Time To Fertilize Your Lawn for Spring 2007-03-16 20:13:00 Luscious Lawn Fertilizer Click me Everyone wants to have a lush, green lawn to start off the outdoor season. Do it organically and you can feel good about having your family out there playing on it and how you're effecting the environment. The product above covers all counts. Read more:Spring
Do You Know Your Why When You Garden Organically? 2007-03-13 20:28:00 Farming for the Future In the rolling foothills of Southeast Ohio exists a movement of small-scale farmers who cultivate without chemicals or major mechanical input. For these visionary men and women of the earth, pesticides are an unnecessary hazard, while one’s own sweat and toil proves more efficient than fossil-fueled machines. Farming for the Future escapes from the grocery store to tromp through the fields with a diverse group of forward-thinking yeomen, illuminating the subtler and oft-forgotten aspects of the vital commodity we call food.This 15 minute movie is well worth your time. Let it inspire you to make a difference in your corner of the Earth. Read more:Garden
Organic Lawn Care 2007-03-07 10:23:00 Mission Impossible?Are you thinking of Spring? I know I am. Getting out without layers of clothes and heavy boots. To take in a breath of fresh air that doesn't burn your nose hairs. To look up at the sky and see blue. And to look at the ground and see GREEN!There is something so uplifting and refreshing about the new growth of the Spring lawn. It speaks of a renewed life and a new beginning. We have not yet stopped to think of all the work involved in keeping it that way. Only that the expanse of the lush green growth lures us to be out on it after the long indoor season that is winter. We become possessed with the vision of a lush, green, "weed free" lawn. We will do whatever it takes... Will you? Even if it means creating a toxic experience for your family and pets? I hope not, because. Read more:Organic
Gardening Action 2007-02-28 02:04:00 Spring is time for ACTION!Starting early will help you stay ahead of pest and disease problems.Wouldn't it be great if you could avoid all the pest and disease problems this summer that you have struggled with in the past? To be able to skip the sprays and dusts and the potentially hazardous exposure to your family and pets? Well you can reduce if not eliminate these problems, and now's the time—when you're prepping and planting—to make it happen.====================================================Start HealthyHealthy plants resist infestation, but a sickly, stressed plant will be an open invitation to pests and disease. As a gardener, your job is to provide ideal growing conditions, so the plants in your garden grow strong.Organic gardeners know that the time to add soil enhancing or Read more:Action
Growing with Heirlooms 2007-01-30 11:38:00 In gardening and agriculture, an heirloom plant is an open-pollinated cultivar that was commonly grown long ago, but has been largely supplanted in modern times by hybrid seed. Vegetables and fruits that have been grown for decades and passed down from generation to generation have come to be known as Heirlooms or heirloom varieties.Some experts say that a seed needs to be a least 50 years old to be considered an heirloom. Others believe a seed can not be called an Heirloom unless it is 100 years old or more.Heirloom plants open-pollinate, which means they are able to reproduce themselves through their seeds, unlike hybrids, which will not yield the same plant from a seed grown from their fruit. Heirlooms are evolution at its best, as gardeners saved the seeds of their best-tasting and mos Read more:Growing
Getting a Head Start on the Garden 2007-01-28 12:42:00 Starting early when you live up North is sometimes the only answer to getting a good harvest. When you work so hard all season weeding, watering, feeding and staying on the look out for pests and disease, how disheartening is it for you to only get a handful of produce for your efforts?Put a little more effort into getting an early start and your efforts will be rewarded many times over.The gardening season is just around the corner and the best way to get ajump on the seasonis to start indoors. Get those seeds started while Ol' Man Winteris still raging and you'll beway ahead of the pack.Garden
er's Supply Company - Free Shipping on orders of $55 or more >>Rev your engines for a speedy start on the gardening season.You can get some of your best Organic supplies right here!For all the extra Read more:Start
Update on Organic Pesticides 2007-01-16 13:13:00 Wow, I just got an email from one of my very favorite places to shop for gardening supplies. I have been shopping with this catalog garden supplier ever since I got serious with my gardening, and especially serious about organic gardening.Remember my post, just a couple posts ago about Pharm Pesticides. Well, my favorite place to shop just sent me an email about these products. It read like this:Easy Organic
s: No Mixing & No Mess!And guess what they were talking about? That's right! If Gardener's Supplyis selling this in their catalog,it's been tried and tested.And it works!Now I haven't had the chance to give this stuff a try, because right now we're in the middle of winter, and there's no gardening going on right now. We're just trying to stay warm, me and the worms. But you can be sure Read more:Update
The Proof is in the Banana! 2007-01-04 21:39:00 In 1992, the Rainforest Alliance sent Chiquita a list of demands - Stop poisoning the environment and the banana farmers with the use of chemical pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers.Dave McLaughlin, general manager of Chiquita's Costa Rican branch, decided to listen. He started by cultivating only two plantations using environmentally friendly methods. The experiment ended up being so successful, Chiquita implemented the changes company-wide. The company spent $20 million to introduce less-toxic pesticides, recycle all plastic bags, improve the working conditions for the farmers and build homes and schools for employees.The results speak for themselves. It is now more than 10 years later, and all 110 Chiquita plantations in South america have the Rainforest Alliance stamp of approval. Read more:Proof
Organic Pesticides Certified USDA-Compliant 2006-12-24 19:06:00 A family of organic growers has developed the world's first and only pesticides certified as USDA-compliant with national organic regulations. This company's products are said to combat mildews, molds, rusts and blackspot, over-wintering eggs and larvae.Here is the classic case of a need being filled. As more and more organic farmers, gardeners, and consumers ask for...no, demand organic alternatives to meet their needs, someone will step up to the plate and fill it.So let your voice be heard for more organic alternatives in all aspects of our lives. We don't have to settle for poisoning ourselves, our children, and our environment.Check it out at: Pharm Solutions Inc.Happy Holidays and an Organic
2007!ChristyMotherEarth'sFarm Read more:Certified
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Organic Landscaping 2006-10-13 14:03:00 Because there is such an increasing need for information about organic landscaping and lawn care practices, the Organic
Landscape Alliance (OLA) has a new website, providing the public with a credible source of information on organic lawn and landscaping practices. The non-profit trade organization’s website www.organiclandscape.org includes fact sheets on organic lawn care and landscaping...Atlantic Canadian Organic Regional Network (ACORN) has developed a new on-line “gardener’s tool.” The Grower’s Database is a free to access and lists the top 100 pests and weeds. Within the database, are pictures of the various growth stages to help with identification, as well as information on the life and growth cycle, damage caused, prevention options and treatments – all without the us Read more:Landscaping
Organic Pest Control 2006-08-27 23:00:00 Pest control is one of the places where organic gardening can actually be superior to chemical methods. Instead of using harsh pesticides to get rid of garden pests, it is often better and more effective to use beneficial insects to get rid of harmful ones. Harmful insects are often unable to compete once more beneficial insects have been brought in to the organic garden.One of the most common pests encountered by gardeners, and one of the biggest reasons they use chemical pesticides, is aphids. These common garden pests can be organically controlled by spraying the infested stems, leaves and buds with a diluted mixture of soapy water, then an application of fresh, clear water. This technique has been used by organic gardeners for many years, and it is effective even against heavy infectio Read more:Organic
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No title 2006-08-20 10:29:00 If a healthy soil is full of death, it is also full of life:worms, fungi, microorganisms of all kinds ...Given only the health of the soil,nothing that dies is dead for very long.- Wendell Berry, The Unsettling of America, 1977*******************************************"Teaming With Microbes: A Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web"Sometimes scientists can talk over the layman's head and not even realize that the message is not being conveyed. This book is written in a very understandable language, that even a simple worm farmer like myself could understand and relate to. A must read for anyone who wants to learn more about the life producing your food.Smart gardeners understand that soil is alive and what is in the soil is what supports plant life. Healthy soil is exploding with life - be
Summer Squash Sensation 2006-07-09 23:07:00 Summer squash comes in many popular varieties, the most common being -Zucchini: Probably the most familiar to home gardeners (and their neighbors).Crookneck: Traditional yellow squash with slender, bent necks.Straight-neck: Cylindrical yellow squash, typically smoother and more uniform than crooknecks, with a straighter neck.Patty pan: Also known as scalloped squash because of the scalloped edges, these squash are round and flat.Each type has different textures, flavors and growing habits. Experiment to find the one just right for you.Squash BlossomsSummer squash produce both male and female blossoms with only the female blossoms producing fruit.Squash blossoms are edible flowers, and are quite a delicacy. Both summer and winter squash blossoms can be battered and fired in a little oil for Read more:Summer
, Sensation
COLD FRAME A HOT ITEM TO HELP YOU GET STARTED EARLY AND STAY LATE 2006-06-08 08:14:00 Ahh...The days are getting longer and warmer, but be careful with those tender young seedlings. Cold nights can set your warm weather varieties back and they may not recover. A cold frame is a simple way to stretch the season out on both ends.It can be used to harden off seedlings before they are transplanted out into the garden, store nursery bought plants until it is warm enough to plant out, or it can be planted directly with early or late crops of salad greens, spinach, or a warm weather plant such as tomato or peppers.A cold frame is simply a specified area that can be enclosed with a material that lets light in and helps keep the temperature of the enclosed area warm and protected.This can be done by surrounding the area with bales of hay or straw, cinder blocks, or a wooden framed b
Organic Success | Battle of the Slugs 2006-05-03 21:48:00 The cool wet weather of Spring is like a wake up call for the Slugs.They arrive in the garden in early spring and stay till fall. They can grow to be six inches or more and can live five years or more. They are gray, black, yellow or brown in color.They have 27,000 little shredding teeth that can decimate a young row of seedlings in a night. They can actually eat twice their weight once the sun goes down.Slugs have a sense of smell and use it to locate a meal. They secrete mucus from their "foot", leaving behind the tell tale slimey trail.DAMAGE Snails and slugs feed on a variety of living plants as well as on decaying plant matter. On plants they chew irregular holes with smooth edges in leaves and flowers and can clip succulent plant parts. They can also chew fruit and young plant bark. Read more:Organic
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